I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. Late last week, XSEED confirmed their plans to localize Takashi Shimizu’s ‘Feel’ for Wii as a legitimate, North American, English-language release. Tiny Cartridge’s JC Fletcher with the scoop over at Joystiq.

Specifically, Kubota—who heads up Japan’s copyright enforcement—likens DS piracy to, and I quote, a "form of information terrorism." So while the GamePolitics’ headline seems extreme and a little sensationalist, I am reading his quote more like "Damn those hackers."

Until a few days ago, the iPhone game Eliss was knuckle-crackingly, hair-tearingly, eye-drippingly tough. Multicolored orbs swarmed the screen too quickly, perhaps, and new game elements popped onto the touchscreen with hardly an introduction.

But Eliss’s creator, Steph Thirion, very actively sought out players’ opinions during this March’s GDC; even after, he went so far as to assemble a whole new crack team of beta testers. Seldom have I met a developer so sweetly wracked with concern after his game has launched—and, moreover, even after his game has already received generally favorable reviews.

Two days ago, Thirion released Eliss v1.1, an update that both eases the difficulty curve and lengthens the game. He’s also clarified the tutorial—although, for my own part, I really preferred the murkiness—and, on top of everything, he’s reduced the app’s price to a comparatively paltry US$2.99. That price point is honestly small potatoes, considering Eliss is every bit as full an experience as Every Extend Extra or Gunpey.

I think it’s really important to note all these changes. Destructoid posted its review of the old version of Eliss today, which is really too bad: a lot of major complaints have been addressed, if not resolved. In any case, if the difficulty curve frightened players off before, Eliss certainly warrants another look.

To be fair, everyone had a terrible 2008, I think. As for Introversion—and to make the developers’ long story much, much shorter—several projects fell through their full plate, and besides that, hardly anybody played Multiwinia. 2008, it would seem, left Introversion in dire straits.

For me, this is the worst part: Introversion was left standing in the cold with their just-completed DEFCON for Nintendo DS. I cannot even begin to imagine the (positive!) response DEFCON DS would elicit.

In turns, I’m fascinated with, repulsed by, and addicted to ‘social network’ games. I am so hooked on Loudcrowd. I am surprised by the way games like Mafia Wars aggressively, virally spread themselves, essentially tricking players into passing the game on to unsuspecting friends. I constantly try to dodge my cousins and aunts, all of whom generously offer me plants and flowers for my Lil Greenhouse (or whatever) that I don’t have. Anyway, read this thingie.

"Everything has such a well defined heft and tension, everything responds to your prodding with just the right amount of ‘squishiness’, that even its most surreal concoctions feel fantastically alive." Let’s all agree to play this and then reconvene.

Happy Earth Day! Last Year’s Model is a website/movement, authored by Anil Dash and others, that opposes the fast-growing problem of electronic pollution by promoting, you know, not buying a new DSi or cell phone or whatever. In these dark days, it’s become much easier to differentiate between luxuries and half-luxuries. With a little know-how, elbow grease, and making-do, you can most certainly sustain yourself with Last Year’s Model. (also via .tiff)

The results of a recent study suggest that 8.5% of child gamers exhibit symptoms of ‘pathological’ addiction to video games (other news outlets have taken the liberty of embiggening the reported numbers up to "1 in 10 gamers!" as being addicted). More fearmongering meant to win research grants and page views? ‘Fraid so. Dr. Cheryl Olson, Harvard: "The concern here is labeling normal childhood behaviors as ‘pathological’ and ‘addicted.’ The author [Iowa State University’s Prof. Douglas Gentile] is repurposing questions used to assess problem gambling in adults; however, lying to your spouse about blowing the rent money on gambling is a very different matter from fibbing to your mom about whether you played video games instead of starting your homework."

OK, this is great. Conci and I were playing Space Quest 2 on Sunday morning, and I was totally tickled by how smart the game really seemed—that is, at anticipating what you’d try to do, what you’d try to type in. Now Space Quest 2 is free in your browser. Anyway, I’m off to try out Black Cauldron; I bought the game on 5.25 floppy in, like, 1994, but I’ve never actually played it. P.S. The multiplayer functionality is really freaky. (via .tiff)

Guess what! You can totally buy a digital download code for 2D Boy’s World of Goo on amazon.com. Frankly, I think this is fantastic: who else is sick of entering her credit card number one painful digit at a time using the Wii remote? Hopefully coming soon: being able to buy download codes directly from the developers. (via tweetmeme)

"In the moments after I felt the pop in my left shoulder, the sensation I felt was not pain. It was panic. How exactly does a 40-year-old man explain to his wife that he might have torn his rotator cuff during a midnight game of Wii tennis? ¶ "Dr. Charles Young made me feel better without even examining me. ¶ "Late last year, Dr. Young, an orthopedic surgeon, spent about an hour experimenting with the balance games and strength-training exercises on his new Wii Fit. Running on a virtual trail. Slalom skiing. Walking on a tightrope. ‘They have this hula-hoop one where you’re supposed to spin yourself in a circle and try to get a high score,’ said Dr. Young, who is completing a sports medicine fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. ‘I was really hurting.’" (via current.com)

Meant to mention this great Edge piece, erm, last Friday. Basically ‘Nathan Jurevicius for Beginners,’ it’s the first in a new column all about the little-known histories behind brand new games. This week: vinyl toys. Love it!

Having raced through Nathan Rabin’s sublime "My Year of Flops" last week (http://www.avclub.com/features/my-year-of-flops/), I felt pretty enthusiastic about Anthony Burch’s assessment of Super Mario Bros—the movie with Dennis Hopper, I mean.

Computer = dead. Have been endlessly checking and re-checking email on iPhone instead. I don’t ordinarily go, “Gee, I’m so glad I own an iPhone!” but during GDC, that’s been my constant refrain. I know, I know: Mac users are so annoying.

Met @gkokoris for lunch! Hurrah! Will also meet for dinner, along with Steph of Eliss (and possibly others).

Met with Miguel of Spooky Squid Games at 1:30pm (scoop forthcoming).

Emily Balistrieri was standing in a long line in front of the Apple store. When she saw me, she cupped both hands to her eyes, miming binoculars.

I really grinned endlessly at Brandon’s “Slouching through Wednesday” post at Offworld, not only because I was there (at the… inadvisable… ehm), and not because I, too, slouched through Wednesday (and—I’m a weak girl—Thursday also). Brandon writes,

In a way, I wish the IGS was why we were all here, and that it could go the whole week through: especially this year there’s a palpable energy and even more a sense of purpose and community to the indie game devs. As more people leave their salaried positions to set up shop for themselves, there’s a definite (and in some cases, outright spoken) sense that This Is What We Should Be Doing, and There’s Room For All Of Us, and Let’s Not Let Anyone Else Get Left Behind.

And that’s the heart of things: I literally have absolutely nothing else to add to that.

Brandon McCartin lists the IGF 2009 winners here, and the video is here. No, you’ll never get away from That One Photo of Phil.

The [Scarygirl] game is almost ready to play (going through final approvals), but in the meantime we’ve got this juicy final trailer for you, which should show a lot more of the game than you saw last time.

The Melbourne-based Touch My Pixel team has worked well over a year to bring the art (and toys) of Nathan Jurevicius to life. Scarygirl, a browser-based 2D platformer, will star everyone’s favorite eyepatched heroine in 14 levels of gameplay—which include, according to Tarwin, “platforming and adventure elements, as well as physics-based bike riding and even a street Street Fighter style fighting game.”

Pretty good reading recommendation from Jason Gajd.: "Why are gamers so afraid of people taking a critical look at games, of people questioning games, like we do with other media? Many gamers have a chip on their shoulder about being misunderstood; they feel embarrassed that their hobby is still considered juvenile, looked down upon, and poorly regarded amongst many non-gamers. They wish people would respect games, but really, ‘gamers want games to be taken seriously until they’re taken seriously, and then they don’t want them taken seriously.’"

"Eliss is the kind of game that gets me excited about the iPhone as a game platform. It might be the fart-noise apps that are getting the press, but it’s games like Eliss, Edge, and Zen Bound that truly define what the iPhone represents for gaming. As long as the significant challenge doesn’t scare you off, I’d pick this one up in a heartbeat."